Traditionally class rankings have been used by high schools to determine valedictorians and salutatorians. These rankings have also been used by colleges to make admission decisions and for awarding scholarships. While there is no direct link between college rank and college admission, there is evidence that not using class rank can reduce stress…

Elementary school students spend less time learning cursive handwriting than they did in years past. The declining emphasis on cursive writing has been attributed to the increasing use of technology, the growing proportion of class time spent preparing for standardized tests, and the perception that the time students spend learning to write in…

In this study we investigated whether teachers' pedagogical and content knowledge of writing would increase as an outcome of teachers taking a research lens to their practice to raise students' writing achievement. Using student achievement data as a baseline, teachers examined and refined their practice using an inquiry process. The study took…

The justification for national standards is that test scores predict a nation's future economic success. There is no evidence that supports this assumption. There is evidence that it is wrong. For more than half a century, reformers have been trying to fix our schools with little success. The obvious conclusion is that something that can't be…

In this paper, we analyse interactions between secondary students and pre-service teachers in an online environment in order to understand how their meaning-making processes embody distributed cognition. We begin by providing a theoretical review of the ways in which literacy learning is distributed across learners, objects, tools, symbols,…

Pressures are great upon public school teachers and administrators in secondary school systems to insure their students perform well on state and national achievement tests. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 (NCLB) puts an extreme amount of emphasis on students' performance on subject area tests. NCLB (2002) requires that at least 95% of the…

Conceptions of learning were investigated in three studies. Study 1 piloted a modified version of Purdie and Hattie's (2002) Conceptions of Learning Inventory (COLI-I) with 236 secondary students. Multilog analysis was used to remove items with poor measurement characteristics. Study 2 used a nationally representative sample of 701 New Zealand…

A program at North East High School (NEHS) was started to help improve state test scores. Senior students work with underclassmen in one of the four state test areas: Algebra, English 10, Biology, and Government to help improve scores with hopes of passing the test. State test scores help to determine whether or not a school will meet their Annual…

Aim: To identify the use and utility of language comprehension tests for unintelligible or non-speaking children with severe cerebral palsy (CP). Method: Severe CP was defined as severe dysarthria (unintelligible speech) or anarthria (absence of speech) combined with severe limited mobility, corresponding to Gross Motor Function Classification…

This paper discusses trends in contemporary Danish early childhood education and care (ECEC). Data are sourced from various policy documents, along with material from ongoing research projects in which the authors are involved. It is claimed that contemporary policy on Danish day care services has a tendency to emphasize narrow curriculum…

We examined the effect of the perceived classroom environment on math self-efficacy and the effect of math self-efficacy on standardized math test performance. Upper elementary school students (N = 1,163) provided self-reports of their perceived math self-efficacy and the degree to which their math classroom environment was mastery oriented,…

Learning a language can be a long and arduous journey, and there is a lot of pressure on teachers to get students ready for standardized tests quickly. Because of the high-stakes consequences attached to standardized tests in combination with consistently lower test scores among English language learners (ELLs), the tests greatly impact the…

The Guam Department of Education (GDOE) presents this report in compliance with Guam Public Law 26-26 that specifically requires the Department to report on the following information in the Annual State of Public Education Report (ASPER): (1) Demographic information on public school children in the community; (2) Information pertaining to student…

In this powerful collection of personal accounts, successful and respected teachers from across the country reveal how recent education policies have played out in their schools and classrooms in negative and counterproductive ways, and offer teacher-led alternatives for providing equitable, engaging, and empowering education. Framed by critical…

With the demand for a demonstration of continuous progress as an accountability gauge in public schools, teachers are compelled to examine assessment data for each of their pupils. This data analysis, in turn, should help teachers gauge their instructional practices and differentiate instruction so that all can reach proficient levels of…